I've been working my way through the first issue of "Stylus"
since it showed up. Today, I was reading the article on pens of
President Kennedy. A few sentences in the article, along with one
of the pictures, were intriguing (to me, anyhow :0).

The author, John Loring, states:

"This is an Esterbrook desk pen with a black nib holder and a
clear plastic taper imprinted 'The President -- The White House'.
The pen appears to be a dip pen, but the black nib holder
assembly house a feed, so technically, it is a fountain pen with
limited ink-storage capacity." (pg. 72)

On the bottom of pg. 69, there is a photo of five of these pens.
A few have rotated just enough so that the combs of the feeds are
barely visible.

From the quote, above, I wondered if the pen couldn't be an
Estie Dip-Less. The nibs in the photos looked like Renew Points
to me, but I've never seen a Dip-Less in person. However from
illustrations in the couple of Estie catalogs I've seen, combs on
the feed would not be visible on a Dip-Less pen, at least not at
the slight amount of rotation of the pens in the photo.

If they are Renew Points, I can't see how the pen would hold any
quantity of ink based on the photo, which leads me to think the
pen would have been used as a dip pen. After all, how much ink
does an FP need to hold if you're going to sign your name once,
then give the pen away as a commemoration?

Anybody have an idea about this? Enquiring minds want to know.

Mark Z.
who doesn't even want to think about getting into what is
"technically" a fountain pen ;0)